Cut All Ties
by SuperheroGirlX
Summary: A Ryro one-shot set in X3.


A/N: A one-shot for all those Ryro lovers out there, set in X3.

Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing. Thanks to Marvel and Fox for creating such great characters.

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**Cut All Ties**

From his position at the mouth of an alley, Pyro could clearly see the billowing smoke from his job just a few blocks away. All the people in line and in the protesting crowd in front of him could see it too, but no one got the message. That was a cure station in flames over there. The charred remains of those buildings stood all around the city; Pyro had made quick work of them all.

"There's nothing to cure!" one protestor cried angrily. Others joined in a chorus of agreement.

Pyro turned his attention now to the despicable people standing in line, filing in one-by-one to castrate themselves. They always looked the same - heads down, shifting uncomfortably with each jeer from the protestors. As far as Pyro was concerned, they were lining up to the slaughter, and he was more than happy to give them what they wanted - an end to their mutant lives. If they wouldn't be mutants, they would be nothing. The smoke in the sky was a warning of the choice they were making. Pyro lit his flamethrowers and waited for the crowd to part. He had raised his arm and started to send the flames outward when he saw her, and suddenly he stopped himself and with great effort pulled the flame back. In a confused anger, Pyro strided forward and pulled her from the line, dragging her away through the crowd.

"Ow, John, let go!"

"It's _Pyro_," he corrected, spinning around on her now and letting his grip on her gloved hand relax slightly. "Rogue, what are you doing here?" he demanded.

"It's _Marie_," she said with the same tone he had used. She yanked her hand away from him and glared back at him with the same fury he had in his eyes. "And what do you think I'm here for?"

Pyro looked scornfully at her. "The cure? Rogue, look at them," he said, turning her to look at the people standing in line for the cure. "Look at how pathetic they are. They know what they're doing is wrong."

"No, it's not."

"Do they look excited to you?" Pyro pressed. They didn't. They looked nervous and unsure. "But they go in anyway and give up who they are. If you go in there, Rogue, you're giving up everything."

She jerked away from him again. "Sucking the life out of people is 'who I am'? I can't touch people John! I have nothing to offer anyone! All I do is take. I take your energy and your memories and your powers...I don't want it!" Marie shuddered with anger and pain. "Why can't you understand that? Maybe you have a gift, but mine is just a curse. If you can't see that, then blow the place up just like you've blown up all the others. I saw it on the news and I knew it was you. Go ahead, take away my chance. I'll stay this way forever and no one will ever touch me and I can spend the rest of my untouchable life watching Bobby be with Kitty!" She was crying now, despite herself. "Go ahead, _Pyro_, light it up."

John stood there, unsure of himself, shuffling back and forth, watching Rogue wipe furiously at the tears in her eyes. He wanted to do something, to help her somehow, to say _something _useful, but in that moment, standing there watching Rogue cry, Pyro was powerless.

"Rogue," he started quietly. And then from her jumbled rant, the words Bobby and Kitty jumped back at him and John was suddenly very angry again, but for different reasons. "Wait, did Bobby screw it up? That idiot! D'you want me to go kick his ass?"

Rogue looked up and almost smiled. For a second, John seemed like her best friend again. But the flamethrowers on his arms and the general meanness that had seeped into his face in the last months were reminders of how much had changed since he had left. "No," she said sadly.

"I always knew he'd screw it up," John said. "I knew the second he won that he would do something stupid like this. I mean, I never thought was the cheating type, or I never would've let him be with you, but...You deserved better than him anyway."

John realized that he'd just admitted to caring about Rogue in a roundabout kind of way, but he was really hoping she didn't pick up on it. He had hidden it so well for so long. Now that he knew what Bobby had done to her, John wished he hadn't given up. He shouldn't have backed off when Bobby got her. It was stupid of him to give Bobby that kind of friendship. John was done giving up what he wanted. He was done building ties with people when all they did in the end was let you down.

"John..." Rogue said softly.

He looked at her unwillingly and tried to remind himself of his mission and his power.

"The cure," he muttered. "You shouldn't get the cure."

"Why not?" Rogue demanded. "If I do, I could finally touch people and they wouldn't have to be afraid of me."

"I was never afraid of you."

Rogue let out a sarcastic laugh.

"No, really," John insisted, taking a step toward her. He figured since he had already let it slip, there was no sense holding back. After all, she was the one tie to his old life that he hadn't lost yet. "I saw what you did to Logan at school, and I felt it when you drained me at Bobby's house, and I was never afraid."

"I could kill you," Rogue pointed out.

John just shrugged and inched closer. "So could a lot of things."

"I put a guy in a coma once just by kissing him," Rogue warned.

John ignored her. "Bobby was afraid, or he would have kissed you every day. I was never afraid."

Before Rogue could argue further, John pulled her to him and kissed her without reservations or restraint. At first Rogue tried to pull away, afraid she would hurt him, but he held her close, even as she sucked away his powers and his memories. It was only after several minutes that John broke away.

"John! Are you alright?" Rogue asked quickly as John leaned against the alley wall and gasped for breath. "John?" Still breathing heavily, John looked up at her with his old grin, like he was her friend again.

"See? I'm not scared," he rasped out. John had never wanted to cut Rogue out of his life. No matter how much he had changed, his feelings for her had remained constant. And now, with his memories running through her head, she knew it too.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Rogue whispered in awe.

John's grin darkened, but he didn't have to say why, because Rogue also knew that. Everything about being Bobby's friend had kept John from telling her, though he had wanted to every day. Instead he just leaned in for another kiss, although his limited energy didn't permit him to linger very long on her lips this time.

"John," Rogue said in a strangled voice, "I have to get the cure."

He stiffened and the cries of the crowd just beyond the alley rang out loudly again to remind him of why he had come here in the first place, and why she had come.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I care about you too, but I couldn't live like this forever." She motioned to his bulging veins, which were working very hard to restore life to his drained limbs. "I want to touch you without worrying that it would be the last time. John, please understand," she begged.

John's grin changed back into the cynical look he had developed as Magneto's lackey. Now Rogue really did feel like she was giving up everything. And knowing how John felt about the cure, she knew he wouldn't stay with her once she was normal. She had to make the choice between a normal life and John. It seemed unfair that she should finally get a guy who loved who she was, but not who she wanted to be. Anyone else who loved her would have been thrilled to be able to touch her without needing to catch his breath afterward.

Rogue said quietly, "John, please," but he wasn't listening to her anymore. His attention was turned back to the crowd in the street and Rogue knew she had lost him to his angry thoughts. His feelings about the cure inside of her were almost enough to drown her own wishes. His fire burned in her gut at the very thought of giving up her powers, but they weren't her thoughts. Rogue was sick of losing herself in other people's memories. She was sick of wondering which thoughts were hers and which ones she had picked up from other people. Determined to cure herself and be rid of the voices, Rogue peeled off her black leather gloves and tried to hand them to John. He refused to take them, so she left them on the dumpster instead and, with a sad smile back at him, left John in the alley to resume her place in line.

John watched her stand there solemnly with her head up, so out of place among the rest of the nervous-looking mutants in that line. She disappeared inside like all the others before her. All the while, John stood there in a kind of trance, hoping she would change her mind and come back to him, deadly skin and all. It seemed a lifetime before she reemerged with a bandage on her arm and a smile on her face. She looked the same, but John could tell that she was different.

He turned away, unable to look at her the same way anymore. He would have taken her the way she was. But now it was too late and the girl he had loved was gone. Sure, she may have still looked and acted the same, but on a fundamental level, she was no longer Rogue - Rogue had died and been replaced with Marie the second she let them put that needle in her arm. The little part of John that had remained, even after he tried to become fully Pyro, almost died with Rogue, right then. But as he stared into the alley, his eyes lit upon her gloves, still draped across the dumpster. They were the last part of Rogue that John had left. He picked them up and tucked them in his pocket. Everything else about him could be Pyro, but he wasn't ready to cut all ties with his old life. John wasn't ready to forget Rogue.

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A/N: Thanks for reading!!

--X


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